A common method for manufacturing a panty garment involves first knitting a tubular blank. Then, a leg opening is cut out on one side of the tube. The tube is slit lengthwise above and below the leg opening cut-out to provide a flat blank in which the lengthwise left side is a mirror image of the lengthwise right side. The top and bottom of the blank can be folded over onto each other and the sides sewn together to form a panty garment having a waist and two leg openings.
This approach to manufacture of panty garments involves knitting a tubular blank on a circular knitting machine. Circular knitting machines have a knitting cylinder with a particular circumference. A knitted tubular blank can have a width in its relaxed, unstretched state equivalent to one-half the circumference of the knitting cylinder. Two tubular blanks can be used to make a regular size panty garment.
Tubular blanks for making panty garments can be knit on circular knitting machines designed for knitting pantyhose. It may be desirable to manufacture panty garments from circular knitting machines designed for knitting pantyhose because such manufacture permits utilization of knitting machines that are underutilized or are not in use due to decreased demand for pantyhose. Knitting cylinders on circular knitting machines for knitting pantyhose are relatively small, for example, four inches in diameter. Such knitting cylinders are sized to provide a tubular blank that in a stretched condition is capable of covering one leg of a pantyhose garment. As a result, two tubular blanks knit on a circular knitting machine designed for knitting pantyhose may not together have a stretched width large enough to make larger size panty garments.
Thus, there is a need to provide a larger size panty garment made from a circular knitting machine designed for knitting pantyhose. There is also a need for methods for making a larger size panty garment made from a circular knitting machine designed for knitting pantyhose.